twin stepchildren: albums that do near wear out
this thread is inspired by dr. mutex. if he hadn't set the flame to "hellish" then we'd all be smugly happy with this exercise - instead, we must think long and hard...i'll offer "the velvet underground + nico" (the banana album) as a starter. i like that it goes back "so far" (dry, grating laugh, paining the throat and ears) - it gives some scale to the fact that "recorded music" occupies a very thin slice of man's time.
Comments
Thompson's music is, I think, very English, in ways I find difficult to explain. The lyrics summon up weekends in provincial towns, fleeting encounters and lost loves, bar-billiards and warm beer, with that tinge of danger that he fishes up from the border ballads. I'm not enough of a musician to make any technical judgement on his guitar playing, but the notes are, to these ears, always in the right places. The music is both very, very old, and very, very up-to date. I've acquired quite a lot of his records now, but of his solo outings, Amnesia remains the one I return to.
Laura Nyro - Eli And The 13th Confession - no one knows the blues like lonely women do
The English Beat - I Just Can't Stop It - click click, click click click
Dr. John - Gris- Gris - je suie Le Grand Zombie
Dylan - Blood On The Tracks - she was married when we first met, soon to be divorced
tim - have you ever heard this rekkid?
Dylan - Blood On The Tracks (another vote if we're voting here)
U2 - Achtung Baby
Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
Pink Floyd - DSotM and Wish You Were Here
Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Session
That's enough for now.
Blind Faith - Blind Faith
B.B. King - Live at the Regal
Johnny Cash - Live at Folsom (the "regular" version--the Legacy version has both sets and that starts to wear thin)
Daniel Lanois - For the Beauty of Wynona
L.E.O. - Alpacas Orgling--a great take on the Electric Light Orchestra approach to songwriting and production
Cheap Trick - Greatest Hits - I realize that a comp is kind of cheating, but I can't leave this off, especially since so many Trick albums have a clunker or two which precludes them from making this list.
Buddy Guy - Damn Right I've Got the Blues
Joe Bonamassa - Live from Nowhere in Particular
@ thristyear - Did you ever get teh chance to see the Beat? Great band live. Dr. John is always welcome.
@ Katrina - Steely Dan still get played, as does Blood on the Tracks, along with Blonde on Blonde and The Basement Tapes
@ bluesboy - BB. King and Bobby Bland Together Live is one of the all-time great albums. I've just ordered the 2nd volume from Amazon; it'll be arriving Thursday, which means the Green Wine will flow Thursday night, and Marie and I will daaaance.
so no loss.
fire of love, however is another story. there's a level of mysticism/spirit/etc. that just can't be denied.
bluesboy - you've seen the blues i choose (posted under zypressenweg) - do you catch what i'm saying?
If you like their other album, you probably have this one, but thought I'd point it out.
By the way, 90's grunge is wearing on me, but it is still the pinnacle of music.
Craig
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
John Coltrane - Ole
In the "too early to tell but what the hell" category, Chin Chin's self titled debut has been pummeling my ears since it hit last year.
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here and believe it or nuts, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.
The Kinks - where to begin? The Kinks Kronikles if I had to choose something other than my own best of comp.
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland - yea, I know Side 3 is a little weird but I still love the album.
And 52 Vincent Black Lightning is one of my favorite songs ever, to which I have sometimes listened 3 or 4 times in a row. And from a guitarist's point of view Richard Thompson is brilliant - even more so on acoustic.
I see where you're coming from. I lean more toward the Chicago Blues/Blues Rock, I think cuz I'm into melody, but it's all good. In fact most of my tastes run to the melodic, whether it's jazz, power pop, and even (shudder) AOR, but that's just me.
# BigD-Bluez - glad to see some Procul Harum on here!
I would also like to add John Fahey's The Voice Of The Turtle album to my list, an album which I sometimes think should have been subtitled Blind Joe Death Does Acid.
Damn it.
One album that definitely has not burned in for me is Chain Gang of Love by the Raveonettes, but it's only been six years or so.
October Project - October Project
October Project - Falling Farther In
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
A GRP Artists' Celebration of Songs of The Beatles
Mieko Miyazaki with Edison & Company- Koto Sebastian Bach 2000
Windham Hill Artists - The Bach Variations
Constance Demby - Novus Magnificat
Raphael - Music to Disappear In
There are also artists I have played regularly year after year for many years without singling out specific albums. These include Yes, Keiko Matsui, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Sarah McLachlan, Asia, and Renaissance.
There are some Classical pieces I have regularly played year after year for several years (and also have multiple versions of):
Debussy - La Mer
Holst - The Planets
Beethoven - 5th Symphony
Beethoven - 9th Symphony
Note that I have omitted anything I have discovered in recent years, including everything I have discovered since joining emusic.
Paul Simon - Graceland
Sarah McLachlan - Mirrorball
that's got glass tables
You can watch yourself
while you are eating.
sara mclachlan - she's in lower case, because she's in the dog house. Hubby bought me a special holiday CD/DVD of hers....I had to get DL'd software to rip it to my PC and play it like I do all my other CDs. Haven't bought anything of hers since, despite her girly chick attraction factor. What a bitch!
edit: umm, but it was a really good CD in the end
Derek & the Dominoes--Layla
Bob Dylan--Blonde on Blonde
Rolling Stones--Exile on Main Street
Procol Harum--Home
Kinks--Village Green Preservation Society
New Order - Substance
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Sloan - Navy Blues
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Suba - Sao Paulo Confessions
These have all survived multiple occasions of nonstop repeat. There's more, but those are the first to come to mind.
And Katrina, you aren't missing anything. Wintersong is the only thing Sarah's done since Afterglow.
Add Material's 'Hallucination Engine" and William Burrough's ''Dead City Radio'.
There's a bunch of newer albums that may make this list soon enough for me. Adele's 19 may actually get better every time I listen to it. St. Vincent's Marry Me is another (still torn on the new album, doesn't grab me as much, but sometime I forget that much of Marry Me was a slow burn at first).
Maybe when I get a little more ambitious, I will list other CDs (or mp3s) that are in my regular rotation.
I might be biased because it was my introduction to her, but it still gets a play every now and then.
I seem to remember Surfacing was pretty good too and there were a couple of older live albums that had a nice rougher live sound as well.
Haven't heard much of the more recent material.
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Solace
Surfacing
The Freedom Sessions (essentially an acoustic version of FTE)
Afterglow
Touch
Solace and Surfacing are almost too close to call - but I ended up giving the nod to Solace for the amazing "Drawn to the Rhythm". Playing it right now thanks to you guys. To be fair, it's not like Mirrorball is a bad album. It just sounds too much like a greatest hits collection than a live album for someone that already has all the music. I've seen her live and have a few boots, and she is wonderful in concert (even if she insisted on wearing those dreadful silver pants too often).
She never wore out for me, but I have stepped away from her music for way too long. FTE and Surfacing go hand in hand with some early romances of mine and it's much easier to get back to appreciating them without the emotional baggage at this point.
"Into the Fire" just came on. Gave me some goosebumps. Damn.
But not together.
hmm.. albums that survive repeated listens.. (little biased toward shoegaze and IDM lately)
Slowdive - Souvlaki (although it does occasionally wear thin on the Mp3 player)
Air Formation - Daylight Storms
Gridlock - Formless
Guitar - Sunkissed
Skinny Puppy - Last Rights
Boards of Canada - Campfire Headphase
Coil - Music to Play in the Dark Vol. 1
Rroselicoeur - Drachenhohle
UFOMammut - Snail King
Sianspheric - Somnium